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While recording Steely Dan’s 1972 debut, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen knew they had a great track for “Reelin’ in the Years”—if they could only come up with the appropriate guitar solo to jumpstart the tune. So they put in a call to Elliott Randall, with whom they had worked in the backing band for Jay and the Americans, and who’d had played on many of the duo’s early, pre-Steely Dan demos.

“They were having trouble finding the right ‘flavor’ solo for ‘Reelin,’ and asked me to give it a go,” recalls Randall. “Most of the song was already complete, so I had the good fortune of having a very clear picture of what the solo was laying on top of. They played it for me without much dialogue about what I should play. It just wasn’t necessary because we did it in one take and nothing was written. Jeff Baxter played the harmony parts, but my entire lead—intro/answers/solo/end solo—was one continuous take played through a very simple setup: my old Strat, the same one I’ve been using since 1965, plugged directly into an Ampeg SVT amp, and miked with a single AKG 414. The whole solo just came to me, and I feel very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to play it.”

“Cortez the Killer” hails from Zuma, one of Neil Young’s most overlooked albums, often lost in the shuffle of its predecessor, the much-praised Tonight’s the Night, which came out just five months prior. But there’s really a very simple explanation for the song’s high rating. Just take it from Young himself, who once proclaimed that, “ ‘Cortez’ is some of my best guitar playing ever!”

Remarkably, the song’s structure was largely shaped by an accident—a power failure which occurred in the midst of recording a perfect, transcendent take of the song. Rather than recut the tune, Young just plowed forward and later he and producer David Briggs went back and did some creative editing, which required the lopping off of several verses. “They missed a whole verse, a whole section!” Young says. “You can hear the splice on the recording where we stop and start again. It’s a messy edit…incredible! It was a total accident. But that’s how I see my best art, as one magical accident after another. That’s what is so incredible.”

“Cortez the Killer,” about the Spanish explorer who conquered Mexico with bloody success, is also a prime example of Young’s physical style of lead playing.

“I am a naturally very destructive person,” he says. “And that really comes out in my guitar playing. Man, if you think of guitar playing in terms of boxing…well let’s just say I’m not the kind of guitarist you’d want to play against. I’m just scarred by life. Nothing in particular. No more scarred than anyone else. Only other people often don’t let themselves know how damaged they are, like I do and deal with it."

“I used distant miking to get that rhythm guitar tone,” says Jimmy Page. “Miking used to be a science, and I’d heard that distance makes depth, which in turn gives you a fatter guitar sound. The amp was turned up very high. It was distorting, just controlled to the point where it had some balls to it. I also used a depressed wah-wah pedal on the solo, as I did on ‘Communication Breakdown.’ It gets you a really raucous sound. The descending riff that answers the line ‘whole lotta love’ was created using slide and backwards echo. Backwards echo has been used a lot now, but I think I was the first to use it.”

“When ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ was written, it was a joke as far as I was concerned,” says Slash. “I was just fuckin’ around when I came up with that riff. To me it was a nightmare because, for some strange reason, everyone picked up on it and, the next thing you knew, it had turned into a song. I hated it forever! The guitar solo itself is a one-take, spontaneous kind of thing. Having played the song at rehearsals enough times, when it came to recording it I knew exactly where the melody was and it came real easy.”

“I’ve been playing that song, or variations of it, since I was a teenager in Sweden,” Yngwie Malmsteen recently told his fan club. “I used to play really long, uninterrupted improvisations when I played local shows in Stockholm back then, and it developed from that. I didn’t sit down and actually write out the notes for it; when I’m feeling inspired, the music just flows out of me. It’s in my head and my ears and flows out of my fingers.”

“Black Star” flew through Malmsteen’s fingers on his solo debut album, recorded in 1984 at Rocshire Studios in Anaheim, California, with the guitarist producing as well as playing bass and, of course, all guitar parts. “We recorded all the basic tracks and then Yngwie had to go on the road with Alcatrazz,” recalls keyboardist Jens Johansson. “He flew in here and there to do overdubs. There are probably three guitar tracks on ‘Black Star,’ and I remember watching Yngwie doing them and being blown away at how he could effortlessly synchronize the vibrato if he was overdubbing a harmony. It all happened pretty fast and on ‘Black Star,’ especially, he knew what he wanted it to sound like it. And he got it.”

“I got home with a pretty good buzz on, picked up my axe, turned on the 4-track, cranked it loud as hell with the loose buzz theory that anything and everything goes, and just played it,” Dimebag recalls. “I played three solos back-to-back, didn’t bother listening to ’em and crashed out not so happy. The next morning I woke up thinking I had a lot of work to do…I almost started from scratch but then decided to slow down and listen. So I fired up my 4-track, put my ears on and bam! Lo and behold, there it was! The first lead I played the night before was it for sure. Hey man, the second and third weren’t bad, but the first had that first-take magic! I didn’t touch it.”

Radiohead consciously patterned their sprawling, epic song, “Paranoid Android,” after the Beatles’ “Happiness Is a Warm Gun.” “It really started out as three separate songs and we didn’t know what to do with them,” explains singer/rhythm guitarist Thom Yorke.

“Then we thought of ‘Happiness’—which was obviously three different bits that John Lennon put together—and said, ‘Why don’t we try that?’ “ Still, the song wasn’t really complete until lead player Jonny Greenwood added a fourth section as a fade out—a lengthy, intense solo, which alternates between being backwards and forwards. “It was something I had floating around for a while and the song needed a certain burn,” recalls Greenwood. “I don’t usually have stockpiles of riffs lying around, but this happened to be the right key and the right speed and it fit right in.”

“I carried this song around in my head for seven or eight years,” B.B. King recalls about “The Thrill Is Gone,” which had been an r&b hit for its author, pianist Roy Hawkins, in 1950. “It was a different kind of blues ballad. I’d been arranging it in my head and had even tried a couple of different versions that didn’t work. But when I walked in to record on this night at the Hit Factory in New York, all the ideas came together. I changed the tune around to fit my style, and [producer] Bill Szymczyk set up the sound nice and mellow. We got through around 3 a.m. I was thrilled, but Bill wasn’t, so I just went home. Two hours later, Bill called and woke me up and said, ‘I think “The Thrill Is Gone” is a smash hit, and it would be even more of a hit if I added on strings. What do you think?’ I said, ‘Let’s do it.’ ”

Strings in place, the song rose to Number 15 on the Billboard chart, becoming King’s first and only pop hit and earning him his first Grammy Award. “I felt especially proud because the song was true to me, and because Lucille is as much a part of it as me,” King says. “She starts off singing and stays with me all the way until she takes the final bow. People ask why I don’t sing and play at the same time, I’ve answered that I can’t, but the deeper answer is that Lucille is one voice and I’m another. I hear those voices as distinct. One voice is coming through my throat, while the other is coming through my fingers. When one is singing, the other wants to listen.”

32) "Machine Gun" (Jimi Hendrix) - Jimi Hendrix Band of Gypsys, 1970

Contrary to popular belief, Hendrix was not in any kind of artistic decline during the last year of his life. In fact, it was quite the opposite. This apocalyptic performance of “Machine Gun,” featuring Billy Cox on bass and Buddy Miles on drums, demonstrates that Jimi was still growing in leaps and bounds near the end. But while Band of Gypsys captures some of the guitarist’s greatest improvisations to date, he was still dissatisfied with its outcome.

“I distinctly remember that Jimi wasn’t particularly thrilled with Band of Gypsys,” says engineer Eddie Kramer who recorded the album and co-mixed and edited it with Hendrix. “He felt that Buddy Miles was trying to steal his thunder throughout the performance with his excessive scat singing. I can still see Jimi with his head buried in his arms, laying on the mixing console during playback saying, ‘Buddy, would you please just shut up!’ So, I would chop out huge passages of Buddy singing. And then I’d chop some more.”

31) "Stranglehold" (Ted Nugent) - Ted Nugent Ted Nugent, 1975

“ ‘Stranglehold’ is a masterpice of jammology,” proclaims Ted Nugent. “We were in the Sound Pit in Atlanta, Georgia, and I was showing my rhythm section of Cliff Davies [drums] and Rob DeLaGrange [bass] the right groove for the song. I was playing my all-stock 1964 blonde Byrdland through four Fender Twin Reverbs and four Dual Showman bottoms on my rhythm settings—we were going to leave a hole there so that I could overdub a solo later. Then I started playing lead work, just kind of filling in and though I had never played those licks before in my life, they all just came to me.

And because I got so inspired and because they followed me so perfectly, that demo is exactly what you hear on the record today. Take one, rhythm track is the song—it made such organic sense with the flow of music that I said, ‘I’m not gonna fuck with that! That’s it, baby.’ And that is the essence of why people love it—because it is so spontaneous and uninhibited. The only thing we went back and overdubbed was Derek St. Holmes’ vocals and my two tracks of harmonized feedback, which come in and out of the entire song. All the engineers and everyone kept saying, ‘You can’t do that, Ted.’ And I said, ‘Shut the fuck up!’ Because I had the vision; I saw what the song could be, and I realized it.”

Comments

David Gilmour's solo at the end of Comfortably Numb took on a second life in his live performances. In fact, it may be David's extended version of this solo in concert that is the reason we are still talking about it today. I can never get enough of it.

Not sure if I'm seeing guitar differently than most people posting here and those who made up this list. Not better or worse, though some might say worse, just different, and not trying come off as a 'unique snowflake' either, just saying.

IMHO, there are several key omissions for great solos:

Sunday Bloody Sunday (measured, upright, and yet passionate)
Beat It (best Eddie Van Halen solo)
A Hard Day's Night (short, but veeeryyy sweet!)
Men's Needs (by The Cribs. this one is too good to not include)

The list is pretty pathetic due to the fact that you don't have Ram Jam's "Black Betty" in the top 10 much less even mention them at all in the top 50. Just because they were a one hit wonder doesn't mean they should be forgotten.

Why do we feel the need to give artificial acknowledgement to players who are really not very good? Let's face it, since the dawn of the '90s, the majority of the rock guitarists are people we would have laughed at in the '70s and '80s, with their hirky-jerky playing and complete lack of any technique whatsoever. And by the way, as much as I love the Stones, Keith Richards is a really mediocre player.

I thought this was Guitar World? Years ago, this publication gave 'air-time' only to players who were worthy, regardless of commercial success. In fact, it was publications like this that put people like Eric Johnson on the map, and thankfully so, otherwise many of us would probably never had heard of him.

Kurt Cobain? Really? I played better than that - and so did many of the rest of you - in junior high school.

danny kirwan is the guitarist for bob welch's song ''future games'' released by fleetwood mac. the final 3 minutes of this 8 minute song feature the best guitarist of the modern era. all of danny's songs with or without fleetwood mac are worth finding . he is also the best singer i've heard. his songwriting talents rival anyone. . eric johnson's solo on ''all about you'' would be my second choice.

This list is #1 on my top 10 shittiest Guitar World lists. They actually put the Crossroads solo on this list but NO Judas Priest?!! I could name 40 Priest solos that are better than more than half of this list. Here's a fuckin news flash..."Eric Clapton wrote other solos besides Crossroads and Wonderful Tonight"!

A big shout out to bmurphy821, I couldn't agree more. I can think of 20 solos from either artist that should have been considered for this list. It was fun, but too darn focused on on a select few. I'd bet anything this would reflect a collective grouping of the staffs' record collections. I guess top 40 would represent the largest portion of said collections. No disrespect, it's great music, but not diversified enough imho. If you haven't listened to Dominance and Submission and Astronomy (especially live) for Buck, or Supernaut and Into the Void for Tony (just scratching the surface for both btw) then you've really jipped yourself out of some extra good stuff. Can you tell BOC and BS were my main influences? But still, where was Billy Thorpe, BTO, Steve Miller, I could go on for an hour. Hell, with a just few exceptions, 1971 to 1979 apparently didn't exist for this list. The 70's weren't just disco you know. If it was, I'm sure I would have been one of those Teenage Nervous Breakdown's sung about by Nazareth (another legendary band that didn't make the list...).

Are you kidding us with "All along the watchtower " at 5# if there is any "Jimmy Hendrix" song which need to be in top 5 is "Purple Haze" which didn't even crack the top 50 in their list
2nd why the hell is "You really got me" by "Kinks" at 59# it is one of the most influence guitar riffs ever played. Placing song like "November rain" in top 10 doesn't make any sense . As much as i have listened "Queen" "Keep yourself Alive" is their best guitar riff. Where the hell is "Back in Black" by "AC/DC" one of the most important guitar solos ever in rock history. This is such a weird list. At the end "Rolling stone magazine 100 guitar solos" is pretty accurate and meaningful list. However they have some misleading choice but it is far better than this piece of shit

We can agree to disagree between Skynard and Floyd & I'll have to be ok with that, but Eruption is just shredding and showing off, which is ok if that's what you're into, but what I think makes a great solo is how it affects you. When Comfortably Numb kicks into that solo or any of Gilmore's solos for that matter, everything else kind of takes a back seat for a few minutes. He makes it speak to you, whether it's plaintive in one of the Animals solos or dreamy like numb. It's played perfectly and it makes you feel.

How could anyone playing guitar with the Eagles have even a top 100 (or 500?) ranking, much less top 10!?! I'll give credit for getting #1 correct, but leaving out influential work by talented guitarists such as Richard Thompson, George Harrison, Zal Yanovsky, Steve Howe, Syd Barrett, John Cippolina, Peter Green, Steve Jones (maybe?) and John Fogerty, while putting something by Ace F. at #50??

This list is pretty much all classic rock. I understand that most good solos are in the classic rock genre, but it would be nice to see more modern guitar players.
It lacks shred solos like petrucci and michael romeo, and it would be awesome to have seen a BOC buck dharma solo on there.
And why is kurt cobain on here???
Overall, a decent list, but could use some improvement.

ok Kirk hammett does belong on this list, but where the heck is megadeth's tornado of souls solo?! That is the greatest effing solo of all time! I don't care if you don't like metal, listen to that solo and tell me it isn't way better than almost all of these solo's.

I DONT CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS-JIMMY PAGE IS THE GREATEST GUITAR PLAYER OF ALL TIME-HE DESERVED #1! NO ON HAS BEEN SO VERSATILE AND TOUCHED SO MANY PEOPLE EMOTIONALLY WITH THEIR MUSIC. THE MUSIC STANDS THE TEST OF TIME AND STILL ROCKS!

can be heard in 'Victim of Changes' by Judas Priest from about '76. Why anyone would even *want* to see Nirvana on this list blows my mind. Nirvana is one of my favorite bands of all time, but even Cobain knew his guitar playing was sub-par. The solo in the song that's listed basically just follows the rhythm guitar of the entire song. I know a 9 year old that could replicate that solo on his first try.

I know alot of younger players don't like "pretty" but for me the most articulate, well composed, tone rich, best use of theme and variation, best use of vibrato, note selection, plain good taste is in the first solo (the second one ain't too shabby either) in "Theme For an Imaginary Western" off Mountain Climbing and only the version on that album.
And he ends it with a whistling sustained harmonic like the cherry on top of a hot fudge sundae. For me, that solo is religion. I've listened to it thousands of times and somehow still haven't tired of it. Try it, you'll be glad you did. Alot of players; Van Halen, Satch have expressed their fondness for West's style. He just has that ...somethin!!!

I'll second that about Leslie West. I'd be more than a little ashamed to call myself a rock enthusiast and leave Mountain out of my collection. What are they teaching these kids in school today? ;-) Check out tracks 4, 5 and 6 on this playlist here:

I would say you missed one of Jimi's best, the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock. And another Woodstock piece, Alvin Lee and Ten Year's After "I'm Going Home." Take if from a guy who was there, nothing like 'em. Ever!

Nirvana? wow and its not just that its on the list but its above songs that have OBVIOUSLY superior solos. i dont even count the solo from smells like teen spirit as a solo, its more like a small very simple riff.

Eruption is clearly #1. Satriani and Vai are awesome as well. I can't help but wonder why Michael Schenker is missing(Rock Bottom and Lights Out off UFO Strangers in the Night are both STELLAR performances).

I am very disappointed.....Guitar player magazine has gotten so user friendly AND/OR politically correct that "some" true guitar work has been completely set aside.
It appears to me that these picks although some are good have been randomly picked, put in a shaker an fell out in no particular order. No disrespect to Cobain, but A GUITARIST??????? Come on. I know kids who pick up the guitar there first time and play that way. Where's the "LOVE" for real guitar playing.